The former Philips light tower in Eindhoven is now host to Grand Cafe Usine which is based on the ground floor of this iconic building.

In the early days light bulbs for Philips where produced here. Nowadays the building is one of Eindhoven's well known monuments.

An old Philips poster with the caption: ‘Les plus grandes usines du monde’ was the inspiration for the restaurant. For the concept it was changed into: ‘Usine le plus grand cafe du monde.’ A grand cafe for everyone!

Project Usine concerned the development of an overall concept where the menu, the food as offered, the service as desired, the opening hours, the graphic language and the interior should all bind together.

Bearandbunny therefore first visualised the moments of the day and analysed Usine’s consumers. With these analysis as a base we created the different zones in the restaurant; entrance, kitchen, bar, cafe, brasserie, restaurant, function room, childrens corner, shop, smoking area, office, toilets, storage and the terrace.

When making the lay-out Bearandbunny started by planning the toilet area; we believe that enough space and attention for this particular zone emphasizes the level of service as provided.

A large entrance was created to liaise with the existing architectural language and to get a strong sense of atmosphere. Big windows characterise the architectural aspects of the building and guarantee the interior space has a strong focus towards the outside. However, the raised flooring near the windows creates an intimate atmosphere indoors.

When we refined the details and selected the materials, our main goal was to make the contemporary interior fit flawlessly in the structure and characteristics of this characteristic building.

By combining old and new together in a natural way an atmosphere was created as if Usine has been there already for several years. Bearandbunny was responsable the overall part of the design of the furniture.

We were also responsible for the graphic design. We created the name, the logo and all other graphic elements, varying from menucard to tea labels.

Beautiful. Those rows and rows of coloured chairs remind me of lunchtime at school!

yrag

Aside from the bathrooms, to me it looks more like Grand Cafeteria Ursine than Grand Cafe. But as a Cafeteria it looks OK, however the 70's styled chandelier lights over the exterior entrance is awful. What were they thinking?